


when the darkness creeps into your basement

by humanluke



Series: 5sos prompts [23]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Angst, Bathing/Washing, Depression, Gen, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29450013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanluke/pseuds/humanluke
Summary: michael goes to check up on ashton.
Relationships: Michael Clifford/Ashton Irwin
Series: 5sos prompts [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019475
Kudos: 3





	when the darkness creeps into your basement

It’s raining out, and Michael regrets his decision to come all the way out here. He knows that it’s necessary, that someone had to do it, and he’d been the one who’d decided to do it. Of course he was the one. Not that the others didn’t care, or anything like that, but they were busying themselves with other things. Their own lives. Michael’s obligation was to care, whilst Calum and Luke’s were to each other currently.

So this is why Michael is on Ashton’s doorstep, rocking on his heels nervously. He sighs, mentally pulling himself together before knocking firmly on the door. He gives it a few moments, hearing some rustling behind the door after a solid beat, and the lock clicking as the door opens a crack. Ashton is on the other side, huddled in a blanket and basketball shorts, looking a little dazed and confused as to why Michael was standing in his yard on a rainy afternoon such as this.

“Michael, what are you doing here?” he asks, and his voice is soft, tentative as he looks him over. His hazel eyes have an edge of sadness in them, like something’s missing for him, all alone in this house. He pulls his blanket around his shoulders a little more before pulling the door open wider for him, realizing it’s rude to keep him out in the drizzle that’s falling from the sky. “You can, um, come in, if you want.”

Michael takes the opportunity to step inside, shutting the door behind him. The house is a little messy -- moreso than normal for Ashton. Normally it’s organized chaos, but this is just disarray of someone who can’t be bothered to clean up after themselves. Michael toes off his sneakers, planning on staying for more than a minute, because he doesn’t want to go back home in the rain. Or until he has a good explanation. Ashton starts into the kitchen, dishes piled up in the sink.

“Are you… okay, Ash?” Michael starts, his voice soft as he hesitates. He’d come here, engines raring, ready to give him a piece of his mind. But seeing him like this, seeing the state of his house, feeling the somber energy rolling off of him in waves -- he knew coming out of the gate at an 11 wasn’t going to make things any better. “I just… I’m worried about you, mate. Nobody’s seen you in days.” Ashton turns from the sink, filling his electric kettle with water before plugging it in and turning it on.

“Do you want some tea?” Ashton asks, skirting the question entirely. Michael sighs softly. He doesn’t want to prod or pry too much, make him speak on something that he doesn’t want to, but the need to know is burning a hole in his chest. He just nods in agreement, leaning in the entryway. “What kind do you want?”

“Whatever you’re having,” he says with a soft smile. He watches as Ashton gets some lavender tea down from the cupboard, unsurprised that he would pick such an herbal tea. It also looks like it’s been made by hand, the little satchels filled with lavender made out of muslin so they can be reused. Michael rolls his sleeves up a little bit, crossing over to the sink. “Do you mind if I do your dishes for you? Will that help you talk to me?” His voice is soft, calming, like the tea he knows they’re about to have. He would move mountains for Ashton if it would cheer him up, even an inch. Ashton bites his bottom lip into his mouth, not looking up from the counter before nodding a little bit.

“That… would be really nice,” he says softly. He looks around the apartment, realizing how he’s been living for the past couple of weeks. He suddenly feels embarrassed, tugging the blanket tighter around his shoulders. “I’ll… get the dishes from the other rooms.” He pads out of sight, and Michael sighs for a moment as he starts to rinse off the dishes in the sink, loading up the dishwasher. He’s grateful something so small could help Ashton out of this funk, even a little bit. He’s happy to help wherever he can as he scrubs week old food off of plates enough that they’re deemed safe enough to be loaded into the dishwasher for more thorough cleansing.

Ashton is back by the time he’s just finished emptying the sink, hands full of precariously stacked dishes as he sets them in the sink. Michael closes the now full dishwasher, starting it before beginning on handwashing the new ones in the sink. “For one guy, you sure do use a lot of dinnerware,” he says with a laugh, trying to make light of the moment. Ashton’s lips curl up slightly, but the smile doesn’t make it up to his eyes. That makes Michael frown just a little bit, scrubbing a knife that has some day old vegemite stuck to it. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

Ashton stands by the sink for a few beats, watching the steam rising out of the kettle on the counter as he weighs his options of what to say next. He looks over to Michael, happily humming to himself, but his eyebrows knit together with worry as he waits for his answer. He lets out a soft sigh before shrugging his shoulders gently. “I don’t know,” he says. “Nothing. Everything. If I could pinpoint it, I could make it go away, but… There’s just this… emptiness in my chest, that feels like it’s growing every day… I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s because I miss Harry and Lauren and mum, even though I try to talk to them every day, or if it’s just my stupid fucking brain playing tricks on me, but… I just feel… hopeless, I guess. That would be the best word to describe it, I think.”

It’s quiet for another moment between them, just the sound of brush on a plate and hot water running mixed with the low bubbling noise of the kettle. Michael isn’t really sure where to go from here -- he knows what Ashton’s feeling, he’s been there before too. But he couldn’t tell him how to fix it, how to change it. It’s not one of those feelings you can just will away. It seeps into every fiber of your being and festers there until you can distract yourself from it enough to forget, or let it consume you entirely. He sets the last clean dish on the counter as the kettle goes off, and Ashton jumps a little bit, surprised by the sound that cuts through the monotony of the moment.

“Well, we’ll have some tea, and we can talk about it,” Michael says with a soft smile. “I’ll help you finish tidying up, I’ll hang out for a bit, we can watch a dumb movie or something -- anything you want. Anything that’ll light you back up again.” Ashton looks at him for a beat, and is overwhelmed with emotions that he hasn’t felt in weeks, not since he’d holed himself up in his house and stopped replying to texts. He closes the space between them, tossing his arms around Michael and surrounding himself with his familiarity. Michael’s hands are still wet, but he still slides them around Ashton’s bare waist, pulling him closer as he feels him shake with the pressure that he’s finally released. His fingertips soothe over his spine, and he presses a kiss to his curls gently. “Hey, no crying on me, that’s not allowed.”

That makes Ashton laugh a little bit, through the tears, and even though he knows he’s a mess, he’s broken, he’s damaged goods, he knows that Michael will always come around to pick up the pieces and help put him back together again.

Michael will always bring his hope back.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on [tumblr](http://cakelftv.tumblr.com)!


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